Sensor for recognition of seat occupancy

ABSTRACT

A sensor for seat-occupancy detection is proposed which is located in a seat and embodied as a passive sensor. This then allows a wireless querying of the sensor using a high-frequency pulse. The sensor may either be embodied as an acoustic surface-wave component or as an LC resonant circuit.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

[0001] The present invention is directed to a sensor for seat-occupancy detection according to the definition of the species in the independent patent claim.

[0002] From laid-open document WO 99/39168 A1, a pressure-sensitive surface sensor is known in which a signal is emitted by pressure-sensitive elements which are located in a vehicle seat, as a function of a pressure exerted on a seat by, for instance, a seated person.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0003] In contrast, the sensor for seat-occupancy detection having the features of the independent claim has the advantage over the related art that, owing to a wireless querying of the sensor by a control device and the passive implementation of the sensor, a simple exchange of the sensor is made possible while the querying electronics are able to be retained. Passive is to be understood here as meaning that the sensor has no power sources of its own, but must use the received energy to also retransmit the sensor information again. This means it is a passive transceiver.

[0004] Moreover, this sensor is robust and cost-effective since no energy supply has to be provided in the vehicle seat.

[0005] Especially in the case of removable seats, such as those in sports-utility vehicles (SUV's), no expensive data and/or energy transmission from the chassis to the seat needs to be provided. Furthermore, the sensor according to the present invention represents a robust and cost-effective system since no active elements are included in the sensor according to the present invention.

[0006] Advantageous improvements of the sensor for seat-occupancy detection indicated in the independent claim are rendered possible by the measures and further refinements delineated in the dependent claims.

[0007] It is particularly advantageous that the sensor is designed as a passive sensor. This means that the sensor itself has no energy supply and obtains the energy required for performing the measurement solely through the electrical energy received. At the same time, this energy is then also used again to emit the measuring result. For this reason, appropriate filters must be provided in the sensor according to the present invention, or the antenna of the sensor must be tuned to the receiving and transmitting frequency in a corresponding manner. It is also possible to use more than one antenna. In a further refinement the antenna is designed especially for a high-frequency signal.

[0008] Moreover, it is advantageous that the sensing element of the sensor is embodied as an acoustic surface-wave element, i.e., a SAW (Service Acoustic Wave sensor). A special advantage of these sensors is the possibility of using them to carry out the passive wireless query. Especially by using an interdigital structure, that is, an interdigital transducer, and by using a delay line, in this case a wireless acoustic delay line, as well as a reflector which is also embodied as an interdigital transducer, for instance, a simple realization possibility is proposed for the sensor according to the present invention.

[0009] Alternatively, it is advantageous that wirelessly readable resonators are used, particular LC resonators, which have a planar design. Such sensors are made up of a resonant circuit formed by a coil and a capacitor, which are applied on a ceramic board in thick-film technology, for example.

[0010] Moreover, it is advantageous that the sensor has a field of sensing elements. It is possible to either provide a common antenna or for different sensing elements to each have their own antenna, so that a pressure profile of the vehicle seat is able to be queried. This may be realized in particular by tuning the individual antennas to different frequencies. But other encoding measures for addressing the individual sensing elements are possible here as well since, above all, the recording of a pressure profile by the sensing elements allows broader conclusions to be made about the occupancy of a seat, which may be used to differentiate among objects and persons and for classifying persons.

[0011] Moreover, it is advantageous that a control device is provided for the sensor according to the present invention which includes an antenna for emitting the query and receiving the signal. Here, too, it is possible to use more than one antenna. In addition, the control device according to the present invention also includes a master/slave station which emits a query pulse in the high-frequency range in response to a signal from the processor of the control device. The sensor according to the present invention then receives this query pulse.

[0012] Finally, it is also advantageous that a device for seat-occupancy detection is provided which includes both the sensor according to the present invention and also the control device according to the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawing and are explained in greater detail in the following description.

[0014] The Figures show:

[0015]FIG. 1 a block diagram of the device according to the present invention;

[0016]FIG. 2 a schematic representation of the sensor according to the present invention;

[0017]FIG. 3 a second schematic representation of the sensor according to the present invention; and

[0018]FIG. 4 the configuration of the sensor according to the present invention inside the vehicle seat.

SPECIFICATION

[0019] For different applications, for instance for controlling a control device for restraining mean, which is required in the event of a crash, seat-occupancy sensors are proposed. Increasingly, vehicles having removable seats are used as well, so that a wireless transmission or a simple line-conducted connection to the seat is necessary in order to provide the electronics located in the seat with electrical energy, or to query the signals and transmit control signals to these electronics.

[0020] The present invention proposes to locate a passive sensor for seat-occupancy detection in the seat, which generates (converts) pressure exerted on the seat into a signal which is queried by a control device in a wireless manner and then received again as well. Especially the use of acoustic surface-wave components such as a SAW or planar LC-resonators, allows an embodiment as a passive sensor, which does not require an energy supply of its own.

[0021]FIG. 1 shows the device for seat-occupancy detection according to the present invention as a block diagram. A control device includes a processor 1 which, via a data input/output, is connected to a master-/slave device 2 at whose input/output an antenna 3 is connected in turn. Via additional lines, which are not shown here for the sake of simplicity, processor 1 is connected to other components so as to carry out its control function. In this case, a sensor according to the present invention includes an antenna 4 which is connected to an input/output of a sensing element 5, which in turn is connected to a reflector via an input/output, this reflector bearing the reference numeral 6. Here, the sensor according to the present invention is embodied as a purely passive sensor, so that the electric energy for operating the sensor is obtained solely through the received electrical signal.

[0022] Using master/slave station 2 and antenna 3, the control device transmits a high-frequency pulse in predefined intervals, which is received by antenna 4 and supplies electric energy to sensing element 5, so that sensing element 5 may use it to perform a measurement. Sensing element 5 is designed such that the compressive load modulates the received electric energy via sensing element 5 in such a way that conclusions can be drawn regarding the pressure or the corresponding deformation of the sensor element. In order to also retransmit this modulated signal again, reflector 6 is provided, namely via a delay line which ensures that the signal is also retransmitted to antenna 3, and thus to the control device, via antenna 4. Therefore, an emitted pulse from antenna 3 is modulated and retransmitted again by the sensor according to the present invention, so that, on the basis of this modulation, the control device with processor 1 is able to draw conclusions regarding the pressure exerted on the sensor.

[0023] With the aid of an oscillator, master/slave device 2 generates a high-frequency pulse when master/slave device 2 receives a corresponding signal from processor 1 requesting it to emit this initial pulse. The power of the high-frequency pulse is set such that the signal retransmitted by the sensor is still able to be received, that is, it has enough power for master/slave station 2 to detect it in the noise. Master/slave device 2 then filters, amplifies and down-converses the received signal to an intermediate frequency in order to digitize it there. The received signal is then transmitted as data stream to processor 1 which performs the demodulation of the received signal in order to thereby detect the pressure impact on the seat.

[0024] Master/slave device 2 may use correlation, for instance, as the receiving technology, so that a weak signal is able to be filtered out from the noise. Since the pressure causes a corresponding change in the signal-propagation time in the sensor according to the present invention, a propagation-time measurement may be used to determine the pressure. If a plurality of sensors is used, the reflected signal is able to be appropriately encoded by a special design of the reflector, so that the identification is possible when reading out a plurality of sensors.

[0025] In a first exemplary embodiment, FIG. 2 will now show the configuration of the sensor according to the present invention. Antenna 4 is embodied as a dipole antenna in this case and connected via lines to an interdigital structure 5 as the sensing element. Interdigital structure 5 is located on a piezoelectric substrate at a distance D1 from reflector 6. Thus, an acoustic surface-wave element is described here. Such sensors are based on the change in the properties, that is, the propagation speed of an acoustic surface wave on a piezoelectric substrate, in this case having a typical size of 3*3*0.5 mm².

[0026] By applying pressure, or by the deformation of the substrate, different delay times of the surface wave result. Therefore, a wireless delay line is realized by reflector 6, so that, in response to a surface-wave packet being electrically energized by interdigital transducer 5, the wave packet rearrives at interdigital transducer 5 following a delay time that is characterized by double the interval between interdigital transducer 5 and reflector 6. The function of interdigital transducer 5, and that of the reflector as well, is based on the electro-acoustical coupling between mechanical deformation of the substrate and the electric charges on the metal-plated structures of interdigital transducer 5 or reflector 6 that is made possible by the piezoelectric effect.

[0027] If interdigital transducer 5 is connected to antenna 4, as is the case here, the excitation may be carried out by a high-frequency pulse received via antenna 4, which, after passing through the distance to reflector 6 and back to interdigital transducer 5, is emitted again by antenna 4. This high-frequency pulse may advantageously be received by the same device that sent the excitation pulse, namely the control device. The control device with processor 1, master/slave device 2 and antenna 3, thus performs the function of a transceiver.

[0028] By a special design of reflector 6 the reflected signal may be encoded, to be utilized for identification when reading out a plurality of sensors at the same time. The propagation time of the signal varies according to the pressure or the deformation to which the piezoelectric substrate is subjected, so that a wireless pressure sensing may take place. As an option, the substrate may also be applied on a carrier structure for this purpose, for example, a platelike carrier structure which deforms in accordance with an applied pressure. The sensor, possibly together with the carrier and antenna, such as a wire antenna, may advantageously be integrated in a seat of a vehicle in such a manner that pressure is exerted on the sensor when a seat is being occupied. This makes it possible to detect the occupancy of a seat in a wireless manner and, as the case may be, the type of occupancy as well, that is, adult, child or object.

[0029] In addition to SAW sensors, it is also possible, as shown in FIG. 3, to use wirelessly readable planar LC-resonators, i.e., electrical resonators. Such resonators include a resonant circuit formed by a coil, denoted by reference sign L in FIG. 3, and a capacitor, denoted by reference sign C in FIG. 3, which are applied on a ceramic board in thick-film technology. An antenna, which is connected via line 9, is used to excite the resonator. The antenna via which an electromagnetic excitation field is emitted, is used to excite the resonator. Conclusions can be drawn regarding the resonant frequency of the LC resonator via the measurement of the antenna impedance. If the resonator is formed from a rigid ceramic plate, which constitutes the resonator coil, and a plate of a capacitor and a superposed flexible foil onto which the second plate of the capacitor is imprinted, the pressure on the flexible foil causes a change in the resonant frequency. Thus, the pressure may be inferred via the measurement of the resonant frequency. This is shown in FIG. 3, since in this case the foil is denoted by reference numeral 7 and the ceramic plate by 8.

[0030]FIG. 3 shows how the sensor according to the present invention together with its antenna is located in a vehicle seat 11. The sensor according to the present invention, possibly with a supporting plate 12, is situated below the surface of a flexible seat upholstery 10. Antenna 4 is located on the underside of the seat and embodied in accordance with the received frequency. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A sensor for seat-occupancy detection, the sensor including at least one sensing element (5) which generates a signal as a function of pressure exerted on a seat, wherein the at least one sensor is embodied as a passive sensor.
 2. The sensor as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor (12) has at least one first antenna (4) for the wireless querying of the signal.
 3. The sensor as recited in claim 1 or 2, wherein the sensing element (5) is embodied as a surface-type filter (SAW).
 4. The sensor as recited in claim 1 or 2, wherein the sensing element (5) is embodied as an electric resonator (L, C).
 5. The sensor as recited in one of the claims 1 through 4, wherein the sensing element (5) is embodied in an interdigital structure.
 6. The sensor as recited in one of claims 1 through 5, wherein the first antenna (4) is tuned to a high-frequency signal.
 7. The sensor as recited in one of the preceding claims, wherein the sensor (12) has an array of sensing elements.
 8. A control device for a sensor for seat-occupancy detection as recited in one of claims 1 through 7, wherein the control device (1, 2, 3) has a second antenna (3) for emitting a query to the sensor (12) and for receiving the signal.
 9. A device for seat-occupancy detection as recited in one of claims 1 through 7 and in claim
 8. 